Akihabara Buys: Laseractive, Vectrex and Master Fighter II

I bought things in Japan. Duh.

When I go digging through thrift stores in San Francisco, I only occasionally find some piece of old videogame history that I want to buy. Going to Akihabara is the exact opposite; it’s wall-to-wall things I desire at reasonable prices and in excellent condition. In true Paradox of Choice style, I freeze up and decide that I probably don’t want any of it after all.

Luckily for all of us, I eventually get over this and start buying things that fall into a few different categories: Things I’ve always wanted, things I didn’t want until I saw how cheap they were and things I’ve never seen before. All of these are represented herein.

First, and falling squarely in the second category, is Vajra II for the Laseractive (above). This is one of a handful of games released for the obscure laserdisc game system‘s PC Engine module. The original was released in the U.S., but the sequel never made it out of Japan.

This copy of the game is an object lesson in why you should always shop around in Tokyo. I’ve seen this game for sale twice, always over $250. But this copy had exactly two flaws: It didn’t have the paper obi, or spine card, and a nickel-sized spot on the jacket was rubbed away.

These two imperfections were enough to lower the price to a significantly more palatable $80.

Both Vajra games are first-person flight shooters, but the sequel makes a significant change. While the first game pitted you against a series of single giant-robot enemies in open fields, Vajra II has a traditional level structure where you face off against a series of smaller sprite-based enemies as you fly through linear corridors. At the end of each level, you face off against a massive boss that’s rendered in the Laseractive’s background video.

In fact, it’s similar to Pyramid Patrol. And, uh, it’s not very good. Of course. Very few people can say they’ve played this, though.

Then again, it seems as if Laseractive emulation could happen someday — there’s actually an emulator now called Daphne that works with classic laserdisc games like Dragon’s Lair.

Like many Virtual Boy collectors, I have a nearly complete set of games. Besides a couple of regional variants, I’m only missing the rarest Japanese games. So when I saw a copy of Space Invaders Virtual Collection in Mandarake Galaxy for about $150, it started working its way into my brain. I didn’t buy it immediately, but when I went back and it was still there, I jumped on it. (It’s usually around $200 in this condition.)

There were a handful of Virtual Boy games released at the end of the system’s lifespan in Japan in severely limited quantities, and I don’t have the other three — Virtual Bowling, SD Gundam and Virtual Lab. I saw the latter two in Akihabara on this trip, selling for $300 and $400 respectively. Ouch.

Also, a new copy of Mario Clash, a 3-D version of the original Mario Bros. that’s one of the few really good Virtual Boy games. Next to it, a sun-faded “sample” version of the game that was given out to stores to put in their VB display units. Got that for free when I paid $15 for the retail game.

More games for obscure consoles. I’m starting to notice a trend. Super Potato in Akihabara had quite a few loose Vectrex games, including some of the European versions from Milton Bradley and the Japanese games that Bandai released.

Having just acquired the console itself, I was looking to expand my library with a couple examples of the foreign releases. Decided on Flipper Pinball for about $25, but then noticed Harmagedon — with the screen overlay! — in a glass showcase.

Apparently this game — the Star Trek Vectrex game, with the branding removed for Japan — is considered something of a prize among Vectrex collectors. Legend tells of one that sold on eBay in 2004 for something like $800. I wonder if any more have sold since then. Generally, the availability of Japanese games in recent years has evened out such wild pricing disparities.

Digging through bins marked “junk” doesn’t just turn up a bunch of oddball $1 detritus. At Trader, I also found $3 copies of more worthwhile Famicom games, Boku Dracula-Kun and Dengeki Big Bang!, better known as Clash at Demonhead.

Finally, there’s Master Fighter II. You can occasionally find the 100-in-1 sort of pirate Famicom carts in Super Potato, but only rarely does one come across “original” games like this. This is the king of the Famiclone Street Fighter knockoffs, a subject that I covered in-depth many years ago on Insert Credit.

In fact, this is the first game discussed in the feature, so if you want to read more about it, go there. It’s terrible. They probably sold millions.

Since I also own a knockoff Famicom, the pairing was perfect. This cost $25, and the fact that it comes with the original box made it all the more worth it. I’m also looking for a copy of Kart Fighter, FYI.

Clockwise from upper left:

Prince of Persia for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM isn’t especially rare, but it’s not usually this cheap either. This copy from Sofmap cost a whopping $1.50. Why? Because there’s a crack in the disc case, and no obi. That’s it. Can you imagine if GameStop had to follow this policy? Its entire used inventory would cost negative three dollars.

Why was there a sealed copy of the U.S. version of Splash Lake for the Turbo CD in Super Potato for about $10? I don’t know. But there isn’t one anymore.

Akihabara’s also a great place to pick up games that have bombed, as stores clear out all of their old copies to free shelf space. The second Tingle game for Nintendo DS was a mere $9, and even more sadly, Zelda: Spirit Tracks was being blown out at Yodobashi Camera for just $5.